New 10-Speed Auto Provides Smoother Performance

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It was a telling drag race up a hill with a 7 percent grade while towing a 9,900-pound trailer: a 2016 Ford F-150 with the original 3.5-liter EcoBoost V-6 and six-speed transmission versus the 2017 F-150 with the second-gen V-6 and new 10-speed transmission.

We don’t have official test results, but suffice it to say, it was a rout.

As it should be. The outgoing 3.5-liter EcoBoost V-6 for rear-drive vehicles has been available since 2011 and was getting long in the tooth. It benefits from lessons learned on subsequent EcoBoost engines, such as the 2.7-liter V-6 for the 2015 model year. The result is a 10-horsepower boost to 375 hp while torque increases by 50 lb-ft to 470 at 3,500 rpm—plenty of power for its 12,200-pound tow rating.

The second-gen engine has the same displacement and bore centers, so it can be built on the same assembly line. Beyond that, every component is new, and the engine now has both direct- and port-injection (two injectors per cylinder), new turbochargers with a lighter turbine wheel, and standard auto start-stop technology that restarts the truck quickly and almost seamlessly when you hit the gas pedal.

The 2017 F-150, which arrives in dealerships mid-October, is the first Ford to get the new engine. It is the first Ford and the first pickup in the industry to get a 10-speed automatic transmission. The transmission, which has three overdrive gears, was developed for rear-drive vehicles in partnership with General Motors.

Yep, you heard that right: The two bitterest rivals in the truck wars working together on a transmission, to the benefit of both.

Both the new engine and the new transmission, which are a $2,595 option over the base engine, are available on all trim levels of the 2017 F-150. The F-150 Raptor (pictured below) will also get the 10-speed when it arrives in showrooms in mid-November. GM has chosen to debut its version of the 10-speed in the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 next year.

We spent a day around the Romeo Proving Grounds outside Detroit to compare 2016 and 2017 pickups on highways, in traffic, up hills, towing trailers, and unhitched on a high-speed oval.

As you might expect, there is a lot less hunting for the right gear with the 10-speed compared with the outgoing six-speed that had trouble finding its groove up a steep hill even in tow/haul mode. The six-speed has big steps from third to fifth gears, often making it hard to find the sweet spot, but the 10-speed offered much smoother transitions.

Going up 17 percent and then 29 percent grades while pulling a trailer, the truck exhibited a nice progression through the 10 steps and was smoother coming back down with engine braking working furiously to combat gravity and a trailer that weighed twice as much as the truck. It was easier to stay in the powerband and not struggle after an upshift.

It shows a nice ability to jump gears to select the right one for the job at hand. Removing the trailer to let the truck loose on the oval, the most dramatic evidence came by taking the truck up to 50 mph and 10th gear and then stomping on the gas pedal and watching it jump down to fourth gear to mine more torque. If the instrument cluster did not display the gear selection, it would have been hard to tell that the truck had made such a dramatic drop. Switch to Sport mode, and the truck will often drop a gear, as well.

Back for 2017, the STX trim will be available with the 3.5-liter EcoBoost V-6 as well as the 2.7-liter EcoBoost V-6 and 5.0-liter V-8.

Ford builds the transmission at its Livonia plant, and it is the first have no cast iron components.

The agreement with GM was largely to save money on purchasing common components and shared development of clutches, gears, and the core guts. Once done, each company took the base engineering and went their separate development ways, designing, engineering, and packaging them uniquely. The result is separate controls, software calibration, and physical structure.

Ford Truck Group marketing manager Doug Scott said designing both the engine and transmission in-house instead of incorporating another company’s transmission was critical to integrate the powertrain and ensure quality, reliability, and durability. As a result, he does not expect quality issues and complaints that have plagued automakers such as FCA when they introduced a new nine-speed transmission from supplier ZF.

Scott thinks Ford will keep pickup transmission supremacy for a while: GM is not ready to put the 10-speed in its full-size pickups yet, and Ram has an eight-speed that is still relatively new.

The engine comes from Cleveland, which will also make the high-output 3.5-liter that will go into the 2017 Raptor. The Cleveland plant will also supply some components for a version of the 3.5-liter for the Ford GT super car.

It’s a long way from 2008, when every F-150 had a V-8 engine. Today only 30 percent of buyers, most of them frequent haulers, opt for the bigger engine. The majority choose one of three V-6 choices in the truck that switched to an aluminum body and shed about 700 pounds for the 2015 model year.